Columnist Dean Juipe: Bonds feels no need to catch Aaron

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, May 11, 2004 | 9:18 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Beset by innuendo and his own malaise, Barry Bonds says he's retiring from baseball after next season and that he'll do it without regret. At 39, he says he's exhausted and tired of the spotlight that has been trained on him during his entire adult life.

The aperture on the lens that is his life was only going to be opened wider and wider if Bonds hadn't announced his pending retirement, as he did last week. By maintaining that he will quit after the 2005 season he has, at least temporarily, softened the hard stance that many in the media and grandstands have taken toward him.

You either like Bonds or you don't. You either wanted to see him break baseball's most hallowed career record, or you didn't.

You either admired his marvelous physique or you belittled him as a steroid (or derivative) abuser and the most obvious offender in what is already being called baseball's "asterisk era."

Going into tonight's game at SBC Park, Bonds is 88 home runs shy of overtaking Henry Aaron's career total of 755 home runs. If he sticks to his word and his retirement plans, he won't make it.

Bonds has 10 home runs this season -- he had 10 homers in April while hitting into only nine ground-ball outs -- and slugging and on-base percentages that approach surrealism. Bolstered by 50 walks and a .379 batting average, his .909 slugging percentage and .647 on-based percentage are so exceptional as to be otherworldly.

So you might think he's having a great season.

But it probably doesn't feel that way to him and here are three reasons why: his San Francisco Giants are a disappointing 14-18; pitchers are routinely taking the bat out of his hands by intentionally walking him; and the ongoing Bay Area steroid scandal is endlessly distracting and potentially ruinous to both his reputation and career.

The Giants may improve and the scandal may dissipate or swerve elsewhere, yet it's unlikely that pitchers are suddenly going to be more receptive to throwing to Bonds. In the past six games alone he has been walked 15 times, including nine intentionally.

"I want to leave. I want to do something else," Bonds said of his desire to retire after next season in spite of having a $90 million contract that runs through 2006.

"Don't need to," he said in response to the question of sticking around simply to knock Aaron out of the top home-run spot.

Bonds has 668 home runs and has hit 73, 46 and 45 the past three years, which is a pace that had admirers and critics alike believing he would catch Aaron early in 2006. Those supporting him could cite the fact that he's a six-time National League MVP who is still going strong, while those hoping to see Aaron's record stand were reduced to history and conjecture as Aaron is the only player to date to have hit as many as 40 home runs a season at the age of 39 -- and his totals dropped to 20, 12 and 10 in the three seasons he played thereafter.

Maybe Bonds isn't going to slip as Aaron did upon reaching 40, as he will in July. Maybe he could obliterate the record with another two or three fabulous years.

But maybe the stress of losing and dealing with others' suspicions is more than Bonds is willing to bear.

It certainly has to be taxing on a man who never enjoyed being assessed more than his fair share.